Thankfully I have another week to work on it, and the major things are done with the exception of moving the bookcases.

I've followed your posts and am AMAZED at all you have accomplished! I know you say you feel like you're living in a 'war zone' but you are doing just great! the little upkeep habits are going to be so easy once you've gotten through this last week and you won't ever have to do this major 'crisis cleaning' again!

Praying you feel better soon!! Take care of your self.. get the sleep you need and break those tasks down to 15 mins at a time with LOTS of breaks!! You won't do yourself or your son any good if you don't take care of you and get sicker!!

As for your home, you are doing wonderfully!! You should be very proud of yourself!!

My downstairs living room and kitchen are a complete disaster with garbage bags absolutely everywhere.

A lot of the work that you are doing can only be done by you -- sorting, organizing etc. But picking up garbage and donations is something that a friend or community member could help you with and I would really recommend asking for that help. You need to keep things moving out every day to keep the momentum going and to have enough space to work in. Keep up the good work

Ok, I finished cleaning the bathroom last night and double bagged the extra trash bags and put them outside next to my trash can. There is no food in them, and I have a fenced yard, so they should be ok until Friday.

I wish I had gotten more done last night, but I was able to get 10 hours of sleep, and feel much better this morning. I have an hour before I need to head to work and am hoping to load up my car with donation bags, get a load of dishes done, and maybe sweep the kitchen one more time. Oh, and I also did a quick once over in the bathroom this morning too. I bought the cleaning wipes and wiped out the sink, counter, and wiped down the toilet. It was so great to leave a shiny clean bathroom this morning!

Formerly single Mama to the zaniest boy on the block, born on my birthday on 3/28/07. Soon to be Mama to a new little and can't wait to and and again!

you are doing great! of course you needed some rest, and you still got things done last night. guess what - i was thinking about your thread and got our bedroom completely cleaned up last night (with "help" from the little ones). laundry down to the basement, books back on the shelf (we have a tendancy to just drop them on the floor next to the bed after reading them!), floor swept and i even hung up our two mesh canopy things. you know, like mosquito netting? over the boys' twin beds. they were so excited! i've never even put them up before, one was still in the package.

Ok, not quite as much done tonight. I only emptied one of the large bookshelves on the landing. I still have one more large one and one small to empty. I did short through the books that I moved though, and have another large box to bring to the Salvation Army.

I dropped off 5 large garbage bags of clothing, two large boxes of books, and one box of houseware type stuff there today after dropping DS off at preschool. That felt like a huge relief. I still have so far to go, but it felt great to get it out of my kitchen.

Tomorrow I a good friend is coming over after we both drop our kids off at daycare/preschool, so it will just be the two of us cranking through as much of it as we can. I am really hoping to get nearly all of it done, and then work on getting the basement organized as well. That wasn't on the landlord's list of things that needed tending to, but it is really bad down there. Just junk stacked on top of junk.

I was going back through some pictures last night, and I am shocked at how much of a difference there is so far. I will try to take some pics tonight before bed of the bedroom that I cleaned up to post tomorrow night. It really does not possibly look like it could be the same room.

Definitely really feeling like it can happen.

ETA: I am so glad that this thread is inspiring others to get their homes cleaned up too! Sad that my living space has fallen this far into craziness, but at least it is getting cleaned up and at least some others are getting a bit of inspiration. We can all clean up and get to the point of loving our living areas!

Formerly single Mama to the zaniest boy on the block, born on my birthday on 3/28/07. Soon to be Mama to a new little and can't wait to and and again!

Ok, I actually ended up emptying the other bookshelf almost completely last night before heading to bed. I have a huge pile of books on it still that are going to the Salvation Army, and the others that I kept are all on the two small bookshelves in DS's room. Not exactly where I want them forever, but they are all on shelves, and about half of them are gone.

This morning, I went through two of DS's drawers in his (very large) dresser and weeded out the too small things to be donated or to be kept for a (hopefully) future baby. The two drawers now close without stuffing things in, and they are organized!

I feel like this is becoming a compulsion. I can't wait for my friend to come over this morning to really crank through things.

Formerly single Mama to the zaniest boy on the block, born on my birthday on 3/28/07. Soon to be Mama to a new little and can't wait to and and again!

Feeling a little discouraged. My friend is not here yet, and likely won't get here for an hour or two more and then I pretty much have to leave for work. Another friend who was going to help me on Monday couldn't come over either and a friend who came over last weekend was telling me how coming over to help me really put her behind on getting her house cleaned up.

Where do people find friends that can be counted on?

Still slogging away, but really feeling down about the whole mess today.

Formerly single Mama to the zaniest boy on the block, born on my birthday on 3/28/07. Soon to be Mama to a new little and can't wait to and and again!

I'm not sure why your friends haven't been following through with their promises to help, or why the friend who did help proceeded to make you feel guilty about her helping. That's not very friendly for her to convey to you even if she does feel that way.

Just know that you are doing a tremendously great job and you're going to get things done no matter what. You've made so much progress so far.

Pumpkin Pie..YOU GO GIRL!! You have accomplished so much. You are a strong woman who can do this.

We are renting right now too and we ended up with crazy landlords who stop by unannounced and practically white glove the place. I don't know why since we are generally neat and clean 99% of the time. Once you reach that place of simplicity, it is SO easy to maintain and I know you will get there.

Keep going---do it for your sanity and peace of mind. You can do it!!!

I'm not sure why your friends haven't been following through with their promises to help, or why the friend who did help proceeded to make you feel guilty about her helping. That's not very friendly for her to convey to you even if she does feel that way.

Just know that you are doing a tremendously great job and you're going to get things done no matter what. You've made so much progress so far.

I just stumbled on this thread and I have to give you a huge HUG and !

You are doing so AMAZING! Don't let your friends drag down your momentum. You CAN and WILL do this. You are an inspiration!

Focus on the things the landlord said MUST get done. Everything after that is window dressing. If he says anything just show him the list (he left a list right?) and show that it's done. After that you can ask for an extension to do the little things.

PP, you are flippin' amazing! I love reading your posts, especially in the F&F forum, because you are always so positive. You won't be in this financial situation all your life, mama, not you. Your drive and motivation will take you far! You are an amazing mom, and I think your DS is so lucky to have you.

Congrats on getting the cleaning started, and know that I and lots of other mamas around the world are there in spirit, scrubbing cat poop with your landlord's toothbrush. Hugs!!

Feeling a little discouraged. My friend is not here yet, and likely won't get here for an hour or two more and then I pretty much have to leave for work. Another friend who was going to help me on Monday couldn't come over either and a friend who came over last weekend was telling me how coming over to help me really put her behind on getting her house cleaned up.

Where do people find friends that can be counted on?

Still slogging away, but really feeling down about the whole mess today.

I'm so sorry. If your friends have very young children, that probably explains it. It's such an intense time of life, and most of us aren't aware of exactly HOW difficult it is until we're past it! Everything is sooo much more difficult when you have littles to care for.

Try not to let your guilt and shame get the best of you! It really sucks the energy right out of you. I've been there, where the mess is stacked up and my whole life is spinning away from me. You'll get it back together. Then comes a process of learning to maintain. Be gentle with yourself, take it one day (hour? chore?) at a time, and you'll make it!

PumpkinPie - mamas with small children just don't have a lot of extra resources, even if their intentions are good. What we need are friends with older children or friends with no children, because those are the people who have free time . Maybe you could link to this thread in the local Find Your Tribe forum? I wouldn't be able to babysit your kids if I lived nearby (because my hands are full with my own) but I would be able to pick up a load of garbage and put it in a dumpster for you. Maybe some local MDC mamas could find a way to help you?

And with your landlord, a lot is in how you present things. Why don't you give a list to your landlord an itemized list of exactly what you've done as well as a proposal of how you intend to address any issues that have not been addressed and an associated time line? Keep a copy of course.

Thanks mamas. My friend did end up coming over and helped for an hour or so, which was actually extremely helpful. We finished up unloading the bookshelves, boxed up a ton of books to bring to the Salvation Army and put them in my car to bring tomorrow, moved the rest to the bookshelves up in DS's room, and moved the shelves down into the basement. She also helped me to put the canned goods onto the shelves that I brought down last night.

I still need to put the clean laundry away, gather the dirty laundry, pick up DS's toys (again...), change litter boxes, sweep and mop the floors, and sort through papers/bills. It looks like a long list, but I think I should be ok. The inspection isn't until next Tuesday, so I still have plenty of time.

I will try to get on those pictures after I put DS to sleep.

Still chugging on...

Formerly single Mama to the zaniest boy on the block, born on my birthday on 3/28/07. Soon to be Mama to a new little and can't wait to and and again!

glad your friend helped you move the bookshelves. i was worried about you doing that on your own.

maybe you can make some tea, crack open some beer, or whatever you like to do to relax...then put your feet up and go through the papers. that sounds like a good task to do while you relax a little.

sounds like the rest of what you have left will be easy to accomplish by Tue. given everything you have done already in such a short amount of time.

about the landlord. i've never had a landlord that came and inspected. they just never even step foot in the whole time i'm at their property. good thing cause there have been many instances where i would have been in your postition.

I have a G-I-G-A-N-T-O pile of cardboard boxes already out by the curb (we aren't really supposed to put anything out until tomorrow morning, but the recycle guys get here at around 7:30am, so I don't want to miss them. I also have a table with chipping paint, a broken office chair, two upholstered bar stools, a rusty kids wagon, a huge broken bamboo window shade, about 8 extra large size garbage bags of trash and a few small bags of trash all ready to go out first thing in the morning.

I got so inspired that I took a crack at the pile of junk in the basement. That is going to take a few weeks to make a decent dent in it, but I pulled one large bag of trash, the table, bar stools and chair out to go tomorrow, so that was a pretty decent chunk.

Now if my camera will ever finish downloading, I will have some pics to share!!! I didn't take pics of everything, but I will eventually. I didn't want to share things that weren't completely done. I still haven't done the floors, but I figured I would do those this weekend. I am sooooooooo close!

Formerly single Mama to the zaniest boy on the block, born on my birthday on 3/28/07. Soon to be Mama to a new little and can't wait to and and again!

Here is the "after" picture of the basement. (I am not ready to show anyone the before pics of the rest of the basement yet... ) These are the book cases from the upstairs landing with the canned/dry goods from the basement landing. Much more organized! You can actually see the stain on the floor from the laundry detergent spill in the after pic. It isn't quite so dark in real life. Not sure how to get the stain off, but the floor is clean and dry. It is an unfinished basement, so I don' think the landlord will freak out. At least the soap is all up.

You are amazing mama that is such a transformation. You must feel so happy inside everytime you see it

My house gets like that sometimes and I have to heave stuff out . You did awesome!

Yes, I do! I flipping LOVE DS's room. I want to work on it more eventually to make it look more like "his" room, but it is such a peaceful bedroom now that I just walk into it every time I go upstairs.

BTW, some of the pictures were wrong and I was in the middle of fixing them when you posted, so you might not have seen all of the correct ones. They are all fixed now though.

Formerly single Mama to the zaniest boy on the block, born on my birthday on 3/28/07. Soon to be Mama to a new little and can't wait to and and again!

Good job mama. You have every right to feel proud. I had no idea you could be evicted for clutter dirty yes but clutter no.

So glad my renting days are behind me and the only one I have to please with my house is myself.

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You did an amazing job of getting your place cleaned up! Congratulations on being able to tackle such a monumental task, and getting it done instead of breaking down. You should be totally proud of yourself for the effort you put in and the result you have!